Royals and Their Love Stories

Per Meghan Markle, so-called "Cinderella stories" are real–and not as rare as you might think. As it turns out, chance meetings, love at first sight, blind dates that actually turn into something more and chance meet cutes at university are all potential ways to meet royal mates–as are sporting events and the Olympics. Here, all the ways your favorite royal couples met, fell in love and made it official.

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Prince William & Catherine Middleton, The Duke & Duchess of Cambridge

Prince William met Kate Middleton in 2001, when they were both students at the University of St Andrews, in residence at the St Salvator's Hall. The two began seeing each other in 2003 and announced their engagement in October of 2010, after William proposed to Catherine in Kenya. The couple were married on April 29, 2011.

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Alexi Lubomirski

Prince Harry & Meghan Markle

Upon their engagement in 2017, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle confirmed that their relationship was "definitely a set up." Harry revealed he and Meghan were introduced by a mutual friend, but the couple chose to protect their matchmaker's privacy. However, E! reported soon after, that their mutual friend, Violet von Westenholz, introduced the couple.

Violet's father is a baron (Piers Von Westenholz) and a good friend of Prince Charles. She's "been in Harry's trusted inner circle of friends for years," according to E!. Her younger sister, Victoria, was previously even considered one of the prince's potential girlfriends. Harry and Meghan met through a blind date in the summer of 2016, and got engaged in Botswana, and their wedding is planned for May 19, 2018.

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Princess Eugenie & Jack Brooksbank

Princess Eugenie, daughter of the Duke and Duchess of York, met Jack Brooksbank, a brand ambassador for Casamigos tequila, a spirits company founded by George Clooney, in 2010. The two got engaged in Nicaragua in early January 2018. The couple first met while skiing in Verbier, Switzerland, and were introduced by mutual friends.

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Prince Christian of Hanover & Alessandra de Osma, Princess of Hanover and Duchess of Brunswick-Luneburg

Prince Christian of Hanover first met Alessandra de Osma in 2005, when she was his tour guide during one of his visits to Peru–but they didn't start dating until years later. Their first appearance as a couple was in 2011, Hola reports. They were engaged in April 2017, according to PopSugar. This marked the second wedding for the couple; they first said "I do" in a civil ceremony in London in November 2017. The couple had their formal ceremony in Lima, on March 16, 2018.

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Prince Ernst August of Hanover & Ekaterina Malysheva

This couple met at a party in London in 2011, and the Prince proposed to Malysheva, a Russian fashion designer, on the Greek island of Spetses in 2016. The couple wed in Germany in July 2017.

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Prince Charles & Camilla Parker Bowles

Prince Charles met Camilla (then Camilla Shand) in 1971 at a party; the couple were introduced by Charles' college girlfriend, Lucia Santa Cruz, the daughter of the former Chilean ambassador to London, reports PopSugar. While chatting at the party, Camilla reportedly made a joke about her and Charles' ancestral connections,"My great-grandmother was the mistress of your great-great-grandfather. I feel we have something in common."

The two began dating almost immediately, and parted ways when Charles left for the Royal Navy. When he arrived home eight months afterward, Camilla was engaged to Andrew Parker Bowles, whom she married in 1973. Although Charles married Diana in 1981, he and Camilla were rumored to have carried on an affair throughout his relationship with Diana, which supposedly lead to the couple's divorce in 1995. After Diana's tragic death in 1997, Parker Bowles and Prince Charles continued their romance, and the two wed in 2005.

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Prince Carl Phillip & Princess Sofia of Sweden

Prince Carl Phillip met Sofia Hellqvist met at a luncheon thrown by mutual friends of theirs, and both speak about their first meeting as "love at first sight," reports Hello!

"I don't think I knew the magic of love before I met Sofia," said Carl Phillip, "But ever since I met her, I've seen how love can change a person."

"I completely agree," said Sofia. "Carl Philip is definitely the right person for me. He's my best friend."

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Prince Haakon & Princess Matte-Marit of Norway

Mette-Marit Tjessem Hoiby met The Crown Prince Haakon of Norway during a party at the Quart Festival, Norway's largest music festival. The two later met again and started dating, and were married in 2001.

Prior to becoming Norwegian royalty, Mette-Marit was a waitress and a single mother, reports Marie Claire, making this meeting a real life Cinderella story.

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Prince Rahim Aga Khan & Kendra Spears (Princess Salwa Aga Khan)

American supermodel Kendra Spears was introduced to her groom, the eldest son of the Aga Khan IV, at the age of 26. The two were introduced by none other than Naomi Campbell, and were dating for only four months before Rahim proposed. The couple were married in 2013, and have since welcomed a son.

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Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden & Daniel Westling

Crown Princess Victoria met gym owner Daniel Westling when he was her personal trainer. They fell in love and were married in June of 2010, despite the royal family's original resistance to their relationship.

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Prince Felix of Luxembourg & Claire Lademacher

Like Will & Kate, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, this royal couple met in university as well–at the Collège Alpin International Beau Soleil.

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Zara Phillips & Mike Tindall

Zara was introduced to rugby player Mike Tindall by her cousin, Prince Harry in 2003, when they were all in Sydney for the Rugby World Cup. Mike had been dropped from his team and was wallowing at a pub when Harry made the introduction, reports Popsugar. The two dated for eight years, and were married in 2011.

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Crown Prince Frederik of Denmark & Mary Donaldson

These two met at a pub in Sydney, when the Crown Prince was in town for the 2000 Olympics. The two were married in May of 2004 and now have four children together, Princes Christian and Vincent, and Princesses Isabella and Josephine.

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Prince Guillaume of Luxembourg & Stephanie Lannoy

When asked if she believes in Prince Charming during an interview leading up to this couple's 2012 wedding, Stephanie Lannoy remarked, "Not only do I believe in it, I also think I found it. I remember the day I met Guillaume I told a friend–who by the way is going to be maid of honor at our wedding–I had found an exceptional man with whom I shared many things in common. I really did not think such a man could exist. So of course I believe in Prince Charming."

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Prince Albert II of Monaco & Charlene Wittstock

The South African Olympic swimmer met Prince Albert II of Monaco (the son of Grace Kelly) in 2000, when she was in Monaco for a competition. The couple dated for years and made their first public appearance in 2006, at the Olympic Games in Torino. The two wed on July 2, 2011.

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King Felipe VI of Spain & Queen Letizia

King Felipe met Letizia Ortiz Rocasolano in 2002, when she was on assignment as a journalist for CNN, reporting on an oil slick on the shoreline of Galicia. Letizia was there to report on the disaster, while Felipe was there to visit those affected. The pair connected and were married in 2004; they now have two daughters together.

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Abdullah bin Al-Hussein & Queen Rania of Jordan

Prince Abdullah II met Rania Al Yassin at a dinner party his sister was hosting. At the time, Rania worked for Apple in Amman. The two were engaged just two months later, and Abdullah II ascended the throne in 1999 and became the King of Jordan, just a month before the couple wed. Upon their nuptials, Rania became the Queen of Jordan.

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Marie-Chantal Miller & Pavlos, Crown Prince of Greece

Marie Chantal met Pavlos, Crown Prince of Greece on a blind date. The two were set up by Alecko Papamarkou, a New York investment banker, at a birthday party for a member of the Niarchos family. The couple married in 1995 and now have 5 children together.

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Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck (Bhutan’s ‘Dragon King’) & Jetsun Pema

The prince of Bhutan met Jetsun when she was 7 years old and he was 17, at a family picnic. According to reports, he told her that if they were both still single as adults that they would marry. He kept his promise; on October 13, 2011, the couple married in a traditional Buddhist ceremony.

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Diane von Fürtsenberg & Prince Egon von Fürstenberg

Diane Von Furstenberg, now fashion royalty, met Prince Egon von Fürstenberg at a birthday party in Geneva, when she was 18. The designer told Over the Moon, "I wasn’t particularly interested at first. There were plenty of other young, good looking men around and he was still in school at Lausanne. But we ran in the same circles, and the more I got to know him, the more my feelings began to change. I’d say the turning point was on a ski trip we took to Megeve. The car got stuck in the snow and Egon rushed to get help. It turned out not to be a big deal, but I couldn’t help but be charmed by his helplessness and how he wanted to protect me. Before I knew it, I was very much in love.

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Prince Charles & Lady Diana Spencer

A member of the aristocracy, Lady Diana Spencer had been raised on the queen's Norfolk estate, and had grown up with the royal family. As a child, she played with Prince Andrew and Prince Edward, and she met Charles for the first time when he was dating her sister Sarah, and came to stay at her family's house; at the time, she was 16, he was 28.

Diana reportedly recalled the day herself, "I remember being a fat, podgy, no-makeup, unsmart lady" she told her biographer Andrew Morton. "But I made a lot of noise, and he liked that, and he came up to me after dinner and we had a big dance," reports Popsugar. Two years after their meeting, they reconnected at a party when they were both single, and became engaged just over six months later.

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Queen Elizabeth II & Prince Phillip

These two knew one another from a young age, as was common when they met in 1934, at the wedding of of Princess Marina of Greece (Philip's cousin) and the Duke of Kent (Elizabeth's uncle). At the time, Elizabeth was 8, and Phillip was 13.

Five years later, when King George V! visited Dartmouth College, Prince Phillip was enlisted to entertain his daughter, whom he had met at a wedding years prior. The two connected, and the rest is history.

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King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden & Silvia Sommerlath

Silvia Sommerlath was working as an interpreter and host at the 1972 Olympics, where she met Carl XVI. In interviews, the two claimed they just "clicked," and were married in June 1976.

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Hope Cooke & Palden Thondup Namgyal (The Crown Prince of Sikkim)

Hope Cooke was a member of the aristocracy in Monaco and a student at Sarah Lawrence University studying Asian studies when she met the the recently widowed Crown Prince of Sikkim in Darjeeling, where she was taking a course in typing. The two were engaged two years later, and Queen Hope became the queen of Asia's smallest kingdom in the Himalayas.

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Princess Margaret & Antony Armstrong-Jones

Princess Margaret met photographer Antony Armstrong-Jones in 1958 at a dinner party, and the two began a secret love affair after he was commissioned to photograph her a few months after their first meeting. The two were married on May 6, 1960 at Westminster Abbey, despite the controversy around his not being of royal or aristocratic status.

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Grace Kelly & Prince Rainier III of Monaco

Hollywood royalty Grace Kelly met Prince Rainier III at the Cannes Film Festival. At the time, the prince had expressed interest in marrying an American woman, and Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onasis suggested Marilyn Monroe. Prince Rainier felt that Marilyn's persona was not quite dignified enough for his family or his position, but he laid eyes on Grace while she was in town promoting To Catch a Thief.

The two officially met during a photo-op for Paris Match magazine, and the prince sent Kelly a charming letter after their initial meeting; the rest, was history.

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Princess Anne & Mark Phillips

Princess Anne was a championship equestrian in the late '60s-early '70s, and won the European Championships before attending the 1972 Olympics in Munich. There, she met another competitive rider, Mark Phillips, who went on to win the gold medal at the games. After a whirlwind romance, the two were married just over a year later.

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Aly Khan & Rita Hayworth

Notorious playboy Aly Khan, a son of Sultan Muhammed Shah, Aga Khan III arranged his own meet cute with Hollywood royalty Rita Hayworth, via gossip columnist Elsa Maxwell, who arranged a dinner party on the French riviera for the sole purpose of their meeting. At the time, having just announced her separation from actor-director Orson Welles, Hayworth was being pursued by Aristotle Onassis and the Shah of Iran.

The two didn't separate from one another all night, but didn't marry until 1949–Aly's playboy behavior, Rita's on-again-off-again marriage to Welles, their both being pursued by countless other men and women and the distance between them got in the way.

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Prince Andrew & Sarah Ferguson

Ferguson's father was a polo manager for the royal family, and during her time running in royal crowds, she became dear friends with Lady Diana Spencer, long before she was Princess Diana. After Charles and Diana's wedding, Sarah was invited to stay with the Queen at Windsor Castle during Ascot week in 1985, where she met Andrew.

The two were seated next to one another at lunch, the Duchess of York recalled in her memoir, and when Sarah refused dessert because she was on a diet, Andrew told her it would be impolite to skip the final course. When it came time for him to take his portion, he declined, at which she wrote, "I indignantly swatted him on the shoulder with the back of my hand." The two were married just over a year later.

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King Michael I of Romania & Princess Anne of Bourbon-Parma

Anne Antoinette Françoise Charlotte, the daughter of Prince René of Bourbon-Parma and Princess Margaret of Denmark, spent her childhood in France, before her parents fled to Spain to escape the Nazis. Her family eventually made it to the United States, where Anne got a job at Macy's to put herself through school.

The princess volunteered for the army in 1943, where she worked as an ambulance driver on the front lines in Algeria, Morocco, Italy, Luxembourg and finally in liberated Germany. King Michael I of Romania ended his country's alliance with Germany in 1944, declared war on Germany and had become taken with Anne after seeing her photo in a newsreel. The two had a chance to meet in 1947, when they were invited to the same royal wedding. The King proposed a little over two weeks after their first meeting, when they were on a drive in Switzerland.

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